“Loyal workers are selectively and ironically targeted for exploitation.” That’s both the gist and the title of a 2023 paper in Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. It found that people who sacrificed their time and energy for work with no promise of a reward were seen as loyal. Consequently, managers were more likely to select those so-called loyal workers to do additional work that doesn’t come with any reward.

The researchers say that if indeed these two facts are fueling each other, then there may be “a vicious circle of harm and suffering for workers.” Put another way, making sacrifices for your employer might not only have zero value to you, but in fact, it might have longer term negative effects.

And remember, work will never love you back.

Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash.